White House Investigations

* Robert Beckel's "Heeding the 'Unstatus' Quo" (Opinion, Nov. 9) urges that the president should put investigations and scandals behind him. What is eerie to me in this, as in all commentaries on this subject, is the blatant absence of the name of Janet Reno.

This low-profile, apparently demure attorney general has ordered special prosecutors and investigations not on the merit of the endless accusations against the president but in the interest of the appearance of "impartiality." No such consideration bothered her about Waco. She should have prosecuted herself for giving the go-ahead for that human incineration of children. Are we afraid of Reno? Where does her power come from? How can this end?

MARY MORABITO

Temple City

* Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's (R-N.Y.) hasty abandonment of the Senate Whitewater hearings (Nov. 9) makes it clear that the only purpose of the hearings was to damage President Clinton's reelection chances. Taxpayers can only hope his plan backfired and instead it will be his own reelection that has been damaged.

RUSTY AUSTIN

Culver City

* If Republicans are smart, they will lean on Kenneth Starr to shut down his Whitewater investigation, and shut it down now. Otherwise, come next elections, it will most certainly be viewed as extremist and will come back to haunt them, much as the "contract with America" did this election. I mean, at this point, there is nothing that Starr could produce (outside of the cure for cancer or a verified sighting of Elvis riding the Loch Ness monster) that would justify this $9-million-plus debacle at a time when some unfortunate cuts in programs such as Medicare might have to be made to balance the budget.